help with home depot ballast

I just bought an electronic ballast from HomeDepot for my lighting project and I have a couple of problems already. Maybe you guys can help! First question: I brought this ballast home and as soon as I opened the package there's a label that says "FOR COMMERCIAL USE ONLY. Not for residential." It's a GE ULTRAMAX electronic ballast (GE-432-max-n-ip). Why can't I use this in my house for my aquarium? It also says to ground the ballast and the fixture. My fixture is made of wood so how can I ground that? Do I ground the ballast with the ground wire that comes out of the extension cord lead? This thing also says for 4-F32T8's will it run the T-12's? Will T-8's fit into a T-12 socket? :?:

Most likely a disclaimer on the label. As for grounding... should be able to ground from your reflector to the ballast and the power cord to the wall socket. I'm not too sure of what that ballast will power, but I hope I was of help... BTW, welcome to CR.

No you shod not try to use the ballast for T12 and the T12 end caps
or not a good fit for T8.
just ground the ballast with the house ground.
The 32 watt T8 will put out more light per watt then a T12 but not shear if
you can find the lamps in the right spectrum. if that mater's for the use you
have planed for them.

Here is the link to the GE spec on your ballast. It is a 73 page PDF file but it shows all of the application and possible configurations that you can run that ballast. I believe I saw that it could run T12 farther back in the spec but mostly T8 are recommended.

The "commercial use only" sticker relieves them of any potential liability if you burn your house down. forget about it.

As far as using it for T8's or T12's what end caps are you using? Are they water proof? If not, consider some nonconductive method to protect them from any salt spray. HD has adapters that go over the ends of T8 tubes to use them in T12 endcaps, a buck or so each maybe. They work. Still water proof them a bit if you can. If you go that route why not toss in the extra couple of bucks and grab some of the plastic T8 bulb covers too.

Yes it'll fire T-12's, most ballasts are under rated by 10-12% of their running/starting capacity, that's just the nature of electronics in general... no worries there. T8's are a tad more efficient running than T12's, but their current draw is very similar.

Now as far as the ground goes, it should ultimately end up at the earth ground wire heading to the breaker panel. (UL calls for wire insulation to be green).

Are you sure on the ballast part number? Just went looking for the data sheet and can't find one listed for a ballast with that designation. But pretty sure I know which one you hvae in your hand I was looking at them a while back, but I was looking for something cheap to fire 6' T8's.

A final suggestion.... GFI breakers, or at least one of the newer GFI strips sound to be in good order here.

What kind of tubes are you going to fire?

Every electronic device is manufactured with smoke stored deep inside... only a true genius can find a way to set it free.

hey thanks guys! Yes the part is GE-432-MAX-N-IP and the product code is 23942. I guess it says for commercial use only because it is rated for 120V and 277V. I'm just going to wire it up and see what happens.. Will T8's fit in T12 sockets?

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